“We were the children of white flight, the first generation to grow up in postwar American suburbs. By the time the ’60s rolled around, many of us, the gay ones especially, were eager to make a U-turn and fly back the other way. Whether or not the city was obsolete, we couldn’t imagine our personal futures in any other form. The street and the skyline signified to us what the lawn and the highway signified to our parents: a place to breathe free.” WayFirstsChildrenFormTurnsGrowsParentWhiteCitiesGrowing UpImagineGenerationsStreetsGayBreatheFlightHighwaysObsoleteSuburbsLawnsSkylines Author:Herbert Muschamp
“There are a lot of good comics, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics - there are black comics that work only black crowds, gay comics that do only gay crowds, and southern comics that only work down South, and so on with Asian, Latino, Indian, midgets, etc. The previous generation's comics were better because they had to make everybody laugh.” ThinkingBlackQualityLaughingDoubtGenerationsGaySouthCrowdsBunchIndianNo DoubtEtcSouthernAsianLatinoMidgetPrevious Generations Author:Chris Rock
“Gay marriage will be universally accepted in time. But if I may be so bold as to say to gays and lesbians, don't wait for that time to arrive. Just as my father and his generation did not 'wait' for their civil rights, nor should you. The toothpaste ain't going back in the tube. The tide has turned.” IfsShouldMayFatherWaitingRightsGenerationsGayAcceptedCivil RightsTidesGay MarriageTubesToothpaste Author:John Ridley
“By the time [of modern] generation was coming of age sexually, there was already this idea of safe sex. But that didn't exist for me. I came out of the free-swinging '60s and '70s. It was free love, baby. That was it. We had very liberal sex-ed classes in 1973, a yearlong environmental science class, and then Women's Lib and Gay Liberation. So it's insane to go from that to Reagan and AIDS. It was like, "What happened? Where's my future?"” IdeasAgeSexClassGenerationsHappenedModernBabyGaySafeEnvironmentalAidsInsaneLiberationComing Of AgeMy FutureSexuallyFree LoveScience ClassGay LiberationEnvironmental Science Author:Michael Stipe
“I think it's going to take three or four generations of gay people being able to get married before it starts feeling less like we're going through these motions, that we're aping a heterosexual institution.” PeopleThinkingFeelingsAbleThreeFourGenerationsGayMarriedInstitutionsGay PeopleFour Generations Author:Dan Savage
“We had the fun of being outlaws. But there's a whole generation now coming up with new gender identities. For this generation of kids who don't think that being gay is anything special, they might be more interesting than any of us.” ThinkingWholeMightKidsFunInterestingGenerationsSpecialIdentityGayGenderOutlawThis GenerationBeing GayGender Identity Author:Dale Peck
“Part of me also knows that this generation is the least racist and most pro-gay, so that's great. But they have a real lack of gravitas. And they have no taste in music. Vampire Weekend? Can we play some music, please? Can we rock out for a minute? Where's your Metallica?” KnowsRealPlayGenerationsMinutesRocksPleaseTasteGayVampireRacistWeekendThis GenerationMetallicaTaste In MusicGravitasPro Gay Author:Greg Behrendt
“It does seem like between the groundbreaking writing of Edmund White's generation and the work of younger gay writers in their twenties and thirties there is a kind of gap.” WritingKindDoeSeemsWhiteGenerationsGayTwentiesGapsGroundbreaking Author:Garth Greenwell
“The effect of AIDS was like a war in a minute country. Like, in World War I, a whole generation of Englishmen died all at once. And with AIDS, a whole generation of gay men died practically all at once, within a couple of years.” MenWorldYearsWarCountryWholeGenerationsMinutesEffectsCoupleGayDiedAidsWar Of The WorldsWorld War IEnglishmenGay Men Author:Fran Lebowitz
“Attitudes toward gays have shifted much like they have for animals. People have a hard time relating to those who are different and often strike out against them in ignorance. But society is really starting to wise up at last as more enlightened generations emerge.” PeopleDifferentHardLastsAnimalAttitudeWiseGenerationsIgnoranceGayStartingStrikesHard TimesEnlightened Author:Dan Mathews
“I think as a gay person, there was no way in my generation to not grow up with shame and a sense of being wrong. It was impossible to avoid. Externally, you might make choices that are very public and very open but internally that was a struggle.” ThinkingWayPersonsMightChoicesGrowsStruggleGrowing UpImpossibleGenerationsGayShameMy GenerationBeing Wrong Author:Ira Sachs
“It's going to take generations of gay people marrying before these things start to feel natural. We haven't had it long enough to remake it as our own, so it does feel like you're getting dressed up in straight drag to do it.” PeopleFeelsLongDoeEnoughNaturalGenerationsHavensLike YouGayDragGay PeopleMarryingRemakesDressed UpGetting DressedGetting Dressed Up Author:Dan Savage
“The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century... unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today.” HumansHas BeensTodayNationsBornRightsGenerationsCenturyGayHuman RightsCommittedWitnessLgbtPermitUnwillingTorchesNew GenerationInauguralUndoingInaugural Address Author:John F. Kennedy
“I feel that gay people not being able to get married for generations, forever, meant that we came up with alternative ways of recognizing relationships. And I worry that if everybody has access to the same institutions that we lose the creativity of subcultures having to make it on their own. And I like gay culture.” PeopleIfsWayFeelsAbleCultureLosesCreativityWorryForeverGenerationsGayMarriedInstitutionsAccessAlternativesRecognizingGay PeopleSubcultureGay Culture Author:Rachel Maddow
“If I had ever, in any medium, seen any researcher or popularizer refer even once to any supposedly ay-producing circumstance as the proper hormone balance, or the conducive endocrine environment, for gay generation, I would be less chilled by the breezes of all this technological confidence.” IfsWould BeEnvironmentGenerationsBalanceCircumstancesGayMediumsTechnologicalBreezeResearchersHormonesChilled Author:Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick